Tuesday, February 7, 2012

A German Christmas

It was absolutely amazing to spend Christmas... in Germany.. in our cozy little cabin house with my 3 darlings.

There were some good things and some not so good things about Christmas last year. 1, we definitely missed our family and friends, but because we will not be together as a family this year for Christmas I felt okay about staying in Germany and just celebrating as a small family of 4. (Not to mention we didn't have a choice anyways... Trip still doesn't have his passport... so we are stranded in this country until further notice.) 2, Londyn was feverish and sick. Sad. BUT, the selfish side came out in us and we so enjoyed having a cuddle bug for once in our lives. Londyn cuddled and rocked and layed her head on our shoulders for days. We felt so lucky! Well, that pretty much does it on the number thing. Christmas was amazing and I already look at these pictures with such warm, snuggly feelings in my heart. It already seems like it was forever ago. Maybe because life in "baby-time" goes so fast. I already feel like Trip is 6 months old. He has changed so much and I can hardly believe he is only 2 1/2 months old.

The Christmas season in Germany was awesome. We took the kids out to Christmas markets every few days and we got Brats and German treats. I was sad to see the markets get taken down and all the shopping centers return to their normal looks. I would also go out to the German grocery stores and buy all sorts of treats. They have TONS of seasonal goodies. I wanted to try a lot of it because living Germany is such an amazing experience. I love soaking it up in any way I can. Some of the treats I loved and some... not so much!

Merry Christmas Eve.

Depending on what "mode" I was in at the moment, I had to remind myself that is was Sam's birthday still... or remind myself that is was still Christmas eve. It is important to me to remember both and give both the appropriate attention they deserve!

Like many families we decided to give Londyn a pair a Christmas pajamas to wear on Christmas eve. Still not sure if we will make it an every year tradition, but I like the idea.

Trip in this little goofy Christmas outfit. He wore it to the Christmas eve party we went to with friends. We played games and everybody made tons of finger foods and treats. This outfit was given to (and worn by) Londyn by Aunt Courtni who had it for cousin Jett (who originally received it from his Nana).

Me with my babies. I am eyeing Londyn's fingers, ready to snatch them out of Trip's face if it become necessary. Don't worry, she's only actually poked him in the eye once.

She absolutely adores him. And that love has only grown and grown in the last little while.

We tried to take a cute family pic... and this is what we got: a fat mom, a wild dad, a cheesy little Londyn with jazz hands and mellow little Trip.

Merry Christmas Morning!

Londyn woke up around 6:30am... waayyy earlier than usual. So we figured we would start with stockings and just enjoy the little sickling.

She couldn't get past the first two items in her stocking.

Sam had a lot of great items in his stocking. Santa put a lot of thought into his this year! :)

I got some fab treats and little trinkets as well.

the Christmas corner

We had snickers for breakfast. There is no better Christmas morning breakfast than a snickers straight out of the stocking. Londyn was so sweet to share.

Londyn got two magnadoodles... one from us and one from cousin Jett (he drew her name in the family drawing). She double took both and couldn't believe there were two. These have continued to be her very favorite toys. We take one whenever we go on a road trip and she has one on one side of the house and the other on the other side of the house.

Londyn lost interest in opening presents pretty quickly. In order to get her to open another one... Sam turned on this glow sea horse while it was still in the wrapping. She couldn't figure out where the sound was coming from and where "her sea horse" was. See, she has been sleeping with a blue one of these sea horses since she was 4 months old! The store I bought it from originally didn't have the pink one. So, I had been wanting to get her the pink sea horse for 6 months or so, before Christmas. Well, she was so confused, but Sam finally helped her figure out where the noise was coming from. She is now in love with both sea horses and she will have a symphony of sea horses going in her bed all through the night. (I wish I was kidding about the "all through the night" part.)

Trip finally joined the party a couple hours later.. but was still asleep.

Londyn also loves her Melissa and Doug wooden fruit cutting set.

The little tiny yellow one month old with the stockings.

We thought Londyn was our tiny babe until Trip came along. Now she is a giant!

We finally captured a good Londyn smile.

Trip got a few Christmas items, but his favorite is definitely this little play mat. It was only $25 on amazon! Sam made me give away our other one because it was pink!

Christmas dinner.

Sam and I made Christmas dinner all by ourselves. We made a feast including a turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, stuffing and cranberries. We opted out on making pie. Probably the right choice. Sam even tried to tell me we weren't having gravy because it isn't "healthy." I made it anyways.